A while a go I proposed the Plugin Folder renaming myself and that worked for me at the time. But since there are several plugins I need, I went on renaming all plugin sub folders seperately (on a vanilla install), but there wasn't one that could be pinpointed causing the hassle with the clip board. So my problem still remained.

Machine & Software Specs

- Asus Notebook N73SV

- NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

- 12 GB RAM

- Solid State Hard Drive 64 GB with Adobe PhotoShop CS5.1 install (as a part of the Web Premium Suite)

It's nice of you to take the time to write this up, but you should know that Photoshop simply does not read the registry entry you suggest adding.

The only registry entry it reads that appears related is: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\55.0\AlwaysImportClipboard

I have personally confirmed this with ProcMon:

The attempted registry access of the AlwaysImportClipboard value (note: No "64" suffix) pictured above is the ONLY one in the 60,000 events for Photoshop.exe captured during startup that contains the word "Clipboard", even though as you can see I entered the value you suggested above.

If the application doesn't read the value you suggest adding from the registry, it can't make any decisions on it - it's as simple as that!

Even though you tested for two weeks, it must be coincidence - or something else you did - that got things working on your system.

A post like yours above, though written with good intentions, just sends other people off to do things that are not necessary, and wastes their time.

TnX a lot for your feedback and the test you ran. As you state it's not my intention to mislead people, nor waste their time. On the other hand. Since this problem is pretty old and no solid solution has been available so far, I reckon any occurance of a solution is worth a shot. The time people are losing on starting en restarting PhotoShop to activate their clipboard again is massive in comparison to this. As this is a forum, we are bundled forces where some of us have more in depth knowledge on the matter as others (myself not included). At this point I reckon any suggestion is welcome to point the ones with more knowledge on the matter into a direction. What else is the purpose of a forum. Won't you agree?

That being said. I can't recall coming up with this 64 suffix myself. At first I created an entry "AlwaysImportClipboard" as stated in the solution I found. But somehow this "64" suffix was added. I've just tried to reproduce this, by deleting the "AlwaysImportClipboard64" entry and create a new "AlwaysImportClipboard" entry. After restarting, it was not renamed to "AlwaysImportClipboard64", so I don't know where the suffix is coming from. For now I'll leave the entry to "AlwaysImportClipboard". As soon as the clipboard problem reoccurs or the 64 suffix reappears, I'll make sure to add a reply to my original post, to overrule it. Fair enough?

Thanks Yves. I had this problem with Photoshop CS5 on a Windows 7 64 bit system, and I tried your suggested fix to the Registry above. I didn't include the "64" in the AlwaysImportClipboard DWORD, and when I restarted Photoshop, the pasting worked correctly. One thing to note for other people who may have this problem. In my Registry, the area I found was HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Adobe>Photoshop>12.0 (not 55.0). I put the new DWORD there, and as I said, everything worked fine.

I'm running Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit. Photoshop CS5.1 (new installation). I'm having the same issue with pasting from Clipboard. I can not determine how long I'm in the program before the clipboard no longer works. This issue has come up several times for me and the only solution at the time was to close the application and restart it. When it fails, pasting (cntrl + v) no longer works, nor going to file --> new --> preset would show "custom" and the clipboard option is grayed out. I've looked through all the threads (5 pages) and only found one solution that works. That is: click Edit --> Purge --> All. I've checked the registry as mentioned in previous thread, the key was already there. I'm including a screen print of that as well. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

I've been unable to paste printscreen from the clipboard without restarting CS5 for a while (Win7-64bit, Nik plug-ins). Downloading and installing the Nik provided config file in post 118 solved my problem. Thanks!

Here is another tidbit of information. When the clipboard IS working, I can paste into an existing document as another layer with no problem. However, when going to File --> New --> and select the preset of “Clipboard”. CS5.1 generates the file with the size of the image that I’m pasting, but it is a blank layer or whatever the background contents setting. Another cntrl + v is required to actually bring the image on this layer. This may not belong in this thread, but I just wanted everyone to see the anomaly.

The Selective Tool issue (or another plugin) is one of the few instances where one can actually be fairly confident of cause and effect, because removing the fix immediately recreates the problem. Since most changes will require restarting CS5, which clears the problem for an indeterminate time before recurrence of the problem, one could think almost anything solved the problem, like say, hitting the shift key three times, and maybe be 'right' for a couple of weeks.

I was able to identify the culprit this morning and have a work around solution. I have Microsoft Office 2010, 64-bit installed on my PC. If someone sends me an earlier version (2003) and I have it opened, my clipboard no longer works inside Photoshop (greyed out). If save the open document (excel, powerpoint, word, etc) to 2010 version, then my clipboard options are available again. This may not be a solution for everyone, but this fixed my issues.

Interesting. I thought I had fixed this issue with the application of the registry change mentioned above, and then this morning I wanted to copy a graph out of Excel into Photoshop and nothing seemed to work. I just tried it now (I have Office 2010) and the file is saved in the latest format, and the clipboard worked normally. So there does seem to be some relationship between Microsoft office and this issue. For me, it doesn't seem to be a simple as the way the file is saved, but I'll keep working on it!

I just noticed something else about this. I had Excel open, and I copied a different graph. It copied to the clipboard OK (as I could paste into a different application like Powerpoint), but Paste in Photoshop kept sticking with the original image. So it copied, but it was not the latest information in the clipboard that was copied!

when going to File --> New --> and select the preset of “Clipboard”. CS5.1 generates the file with the size of the image that I’m pasting, but it is a blank layer or whatever the background contents setting. Another cntrl + v is required to actually bring the image on this layer.

This is exactly how it's supposed to work.

That said, there are problems with doing File - New, using the Clipboard preset, then pasting the clipboard into the new image IF you do it all from within an action. I created such an action so that I could have a one-keypress way to make a new document from the clipboard. You can sometimes get Photoshop to say "Can't do it because of a problem with the color engine". This is almost perfectly reproducible if you copy an image with only grayscale in it.

I don't know if this could related to any problems generally seen with accessing the clipboard.

I *DO* know that whatever planetary alignment I live under, I've not personally seen a failure to be able to paste the contents of the clipboard into Photoshop for a VERY long time, no matter whether I run Photoshop for a long editing session. Is this because I use it differently than others? Because I have different plug-ins? Because my display driver happens to be less buggy? Who can say?

Just to let folks know, these clipboard issues are NOT only related to PhotoShop. I have similar problems with the old Adobe PhotoDeluxe program. No other photo editing program I have -- and I have numerous -- has a clipboard issue. Only Adobe. It seems is some type of systemic issue with Adobe, maybe a programming / code conflict with programs, something that has continued for years. Also, you can copy a .jpg from some site and paste it to all other editing program, but not into Adobe. The clipboard error comes up. However, if you then copy the .jpg from that photo editing program, it will paste into Adobe without the clipboard issue.

And frankly, as I have read through the replies to this issue, it seems that for some odd, incomprehensible reason there are posters on here that seem incapablre of even considering, much less accepting, that maybe Adobe and its programs are the problem adn creating this problem, not other programs, hardware or other things that are creating conflicts with Adobe. When all other programs work fine together and the problem only occcurs with Adobe, it seems pretty intuitive and LOGICAL that the problem is within ADOBE, not anywhere else.

Why don't you try having PS open first and then copying and pasting? Too, it might be a coding conflict between Adobe and not all websites, just some. But, the fact that it only happens to me using Adobe, and an Adobe program that is NOT PhotoShop, points directly to Adobe as the problem. But,as I say, some people simply cannot even consider that Adobe itself might be the culprit. Bizarre behavior. I think there is a psychology study in there somewhere!

How do you know I don't? Methinks there is a psychological study here.

FYI, I have approached it from many different points of view. In general PS is almost always open and minimized. So I tried it from the minimized condition. I have closed it, reopened it and tried it, I have rebooted and tried it. PS open, copy and paste. PS closed, copy, open PS and paste. I have -0- problems here.

I'm running Win7 64 Ultimate. I haven't tried it in XP but I can. In any case, doing a copy and paste from the web to PS has been a common practice for eons for me, with nary a problem.

Sorry, I'm using that ancient, decrepit Windows XP. I'm not that advanced that I just had to have Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate.

Oh, and is there the simply old cut, copy and paste feature that ADOBE has omitted here on this forum? Nice of Adobe, however, to give the users emoticons on the task bar. Very useful. Of course, it's probably my poor XP operating system, or some other program, that is interfering with Adobe and preventing me from cutting, copying and pasting.

Just try to stick to explaining why this same clipboard issue happens with two Adobe photo editing programs that are over a decade separated from each other and different.

I can think of a number of reasons. Mostly it sounds like something on your SYSTEM is affecting the pasting of large sets of image data from the clipboard in some way that affects Adobe software. Where are you copying the images from?

I do think it's important to establish that the problem doesn't affect everyone. No one's trying to tell you it's a non-problem or that we don't believe you; if anything we're trying to let you know there's hope for it to work properly on your system because it's been seen to work properly elsewhere. For what it's worth, I personally experienced the clipboard problem with Photoshop years ago with XP; I just don't have it now (and I haven't had it since Vista was released). Is it Adobe's fault? Probably, at least in part. But they're clearly not fixing it - they're milking their cash cow for all she's worth - so we as users have to try to work around it. One way is to update your operating system to modern standards.

Please keep in mind that there are some very good bona fide reasons Microsoft has released new major versions of their operating systems... They have corrected many problems and limitations under the covers that plagued the old systems. Would you complain that the air conditioner in your 1968 Falcon doesn't work as well as those in new cars? I'm not sure what reasoning you're using to continue justifying running XP; it's clearly not working that well for you.

-Noel

P.S., Think about this: Adobe develops these apps for both Mac and PC. They started on Mac, and their focus is still pretty strongly on Mac (and only on the latest systems). On the PC side, there are multiple different operating sytems they have to consider: XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (and right now, probably Windows 8 as well). Given all this, do you really think they spend a lot of time worrying how things work for you on the oldest of all these - XP?

I did run the test on XP and your theory failed there as well. So, at least on one machine, running separate, different OS's (XP and Win7 ) I failed to replicate the problem, and in falsification testing, all you need is for the theory to fail once, even if it has not failed for thousands of times. This is done to establish validity of the theory so that further explorations do not go up blind alleys.

So if I were to attempt to take it further, I would have to replicate your system exactly and then attempt to find a cause For your system. This is not going to happen here, so you need to do it your self. I know it's tedious, even quite difficult, without the proper tools to evaluate outcomes.

One thing I would try, and that is a fresh installation of XP, all updates, then install CS5 and run the test again. Keep adding programs until it fails then try you may have to make up your mind as to what to keep. Keep the machine off line and run the test without AV running or installed.

You can obtain online help from MS experts to dig into details, but with the age of XP and it's imminent demise from MS support (my guess? release of Win 8) this is going to be a stretch.

The whole discussion of XP vs Win7 is a red herring. If you read the entire thread, there are many who have this problem on Win7 as well as XP. It’s not the OS, it is something else. I’ve had to fix this on every version of Photoshop back to CS2, on OS’s going back to Windows 98. I don’t run any add-ins other than what comes with Photoshop, and with CS5 it was significantly harder to get the clipboard to work (the registry hack did not immediately help). After struggling with my problem here for quite a long time, I gave up and started using Paint as an intermediary. Without changing anything, I forgot to use Paint one day and discovered my Photoshop clipboard was working. I have no idea why functionality was restored, but it has remained functional for many months now.

All of my CS5 clipboard issues took place on Windows 7 64-bit. It’s not the OS – it’s something else.

It's probably somethings (plural), which is why the "problem" is so elusive.

It's a bit like saying "my engine doesn't start sometimes". The symptom is clear, but the problem could be many different things (or, as I suspect in this case, a combination of several different things).

I see the problem in Illustrator as well. I don't have anything else that I'd paste into from Adobe. But I'd agree it does seem to be across products.

FWIW, I had to have my machine rebuilt about two weeks ago and on an entirely vanilla install with only Visual Studio, Photoshop and Illustrator, on Win7, I still have the same problem.

It's blatantly obvious to me that the problem's origin is Adobe, not Microsoft and it seems crazy to me to see people trying to blame MS. If it were MS, other apps would have clipboard trouble....and they don't.

Look, It's unreasonable to fix blame on such information. Instead, why not simply post the problem as you experience it along with a reasonably comprehensive list of your setup and leave it at that? When has fixing blame by a client ever worked? It doesn't even when the struggle is internal to the organization.

I have a similar situation between Adobe and DXO. Who's to "blame"? "Not I" says each other. But the new DXO Pro 7 does not show the problem. I think the real answer is which organization will take it up and fix it from their end, even if no other reason exists to do that work.